Showing papers by "Winfried März published in 2006"

Free Fatty Acids Are Independently Associated with All-Cause and Cardiovascular Mortality in Subjects with Coronary Artery Disease

Abstract: 0.002) and 1.83 (P 0.001), respectively. In persons with angiographic coronary artery disease (CAD), stable CAD, and unstable CAD, the predictive value of FFAs was similar to that in the entire cohort, but the association did not attain statistical significance in persons without CAD analyzed separately. FFA levels were not related to the presence of angiographic CAD but were elevated in subjects with unstable CAD, compared with probands with stable CAD. Furthermore, FFAs increased with the severity of heart failure and were positively correlated with N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (P 0.001). Conclusions: FFA levels independently predict all-cause and cardiovascular mortality in subjects with angiographic CAD. A possible diagnostic use of FFAs warrants further studies, but our results may underline the importance of therapeutic approaches to influence FFA metabolism. (J Clin Endocrinol Metab 91: 2542–2547, 2006)

More reliable brain death diagnosis with chromatographic analysis of midazolam, diazepam, thiopentone, and active metabolites.

Abstract: Brain death diagnosis may be confounded by centrally acting drugs. The certainty of brain death diagnosis can be enhanced by demonstrating that the concentrations of such drugs are well below the therapeutic range. A combined high-performance liquid chromatography-based method was developed for the benzodiazepines midazolam, 1-hydroxymidazolam, 1-hydroxymidazolam glucuronide, diazepam, and nordiazepam and for the barbiturates thiopentone and pentobarbitone in serum or plasma of critically ill patients. The lower limits of detection of the assays for benzodiazepines and barbiturates were 2.5 ng/mL and 0.05 microg/mL. The lower limits of the working ranges of these assays were set at 25 ng/mL and 0.5 microg/mL, respectively, and are below the lowest pharmacologically active plasma concentrations of these drugs. Intra- and interday coefficients of variations were less than 2.5% and 11.0% throughout, as determined with six replicates (n = 6). These assays were accurate in that the relative difference between actually measured and expected concentration never exceeded 12%. Utilization of these assays will render the diagnosis of brain death more reliable.